Show J BELIEVES DURRANT INNOCENT Judge Merriam of Arkansas Makes a Public Statement Little Rock Ark Dec 10Judge E 11 Merriman of this city who once defended Joseph F Blanther when Blanther under the name of Forbes was charged with a crime in this city out statement today in gave I public 1 which he reiterates his previously expressed ex-pressed belief Oat Blanther and not Theodore Durrant murdered Blanche 1 Lamont and Minnie Williams in San Francisco He declares that the execution exe-cution of Durrant will be a judicial murder He insists there can be no question but that the confession produced pro-duced in Texas s in the handwriting of Blanther and he declares that this confession must be accepted as true as against the merely circumstantial evidence involving Durrant I The fact that Blanther was seen inI I Atlanta Ga between April 12 and April 15 1S95 Merriman puts aside He I I argues that Blanther could have left 1 Atlanta on April 4 and been in San Francisco in time to murder the two girls on the night of April 12 or possibly pos-sibly the night before after which he might have returned immediately 1 to Atlanta The lawyer expressed the belief that Blanther committed these I crimes as the hireling of someone who wanted to put the two girls out of the way |